'The word pedants' top 10 | It's specific, not Pacific...' blog discussion.

KimYeovil

"It's not rocket science" is itself a nigglesome idiom. Rocket science is a rather straightforward science. Admittedly there are technological challenges in the practical implementation but the core theory is elementary.

magpiecottage

Over use of the reflexive annoys me. Recently got a letter from son's teacher saying "myself and Mrs ... will be waiting in reception". So we then had to explain to him that she should have said "Mrs ... or I will be waiting in reception".

I have also heard "Damp squid" on Radio 4.

I saw a warning the other day that bad punctuation can be extremely dangerous - there is a big difference between "You must eat, Martin" and "You must eat Martin"

KimYeovil

"Begs the question" does not mean "prompts the obvious question". :mad:

jennyjelly

Ooh, if we're moving on to annoying cliches how about:

At this moment in time
At the end of the day
Fact (said after an opinion is expressed)

and (back to the court again) the phrase that seems to start every telephone call I answer:

What it is, right, (followed by I've got this fine, or whatever the call is about)

Drives me mad.

Raksha

And speaking of 'Pence' - when a price is given as £1.99p - it's either £1.99 or 199p

deeplyblue

Terri31 wrote: »

There instead of their and vice versa; their = belongs to, and there is used as in over there - ie a place. So there you are, I agree with you there = in that respect!

and "they're" grrr

esuhl

Things that annoy me are:

People who use "joke" words either thinking that they are the correct form or thinking that repeating the same joke ad nauseum is still funny. I'm referring to pseudo-words such as "thusly" (meaning "like this") and "virii" (instead of "viruses")...

The use of "data" as if it were singular - "there isn't enough data" instead of "there aren't enough data".

Use of the incorrect word form - "Have you sent the invites?" instead of "...invitations?".

And the Orange advert from a few years ago that referred to a "one pence" charge still haunts me! Can a company like Orange not afford to proofread its TV advertisements?!

Finally, it's probably considered correct usage, but it annoys me when people refer to concepts in terms of specific units - like "mileage" instead of distance, "wattage" instead of power, "acreage" instead of area or "footage" for length. If you're going to mix up the concepts and the units, why not refer to "grammage" for mass or "per secondage" for frequency or "minuteage" for duration or "degreeage" for angle...?

And then I tell myself that there are more important things to worry about!

spikeydudeuk

On literally/figuratively:

retiredoap

"Over use of the reflexive annoys me."

Me too!
I tire of receiving correspondence saying "Please sign the enclosed form and return it to myself." I am tempted to enclose a note saying "only you can return it to yourself".

shellysue

how about

Almost exactly